Grief Group
by regertz
Summary: Another encounter in Rome following William's and Angel's final battle with the Senior Partners...


"Grief Group..."

PG-13

Disclaimer: It's all yours and ME's, Joss...

Spoilers for Angel to this week...Flee at once!...

Summary: Another encounter in Rome following William's and Angel's final battle with the Senior Partners...

Rome...Buffy's apartment...Late night...

The distinguished and dashing aristocratic features of the Immortal bore a somewhat uncomfortable expression as he stared at his latest...

"My dear...This is so unlike..."

"Just go...Now, please..." Buffy pointed to the door...

"I didn't mean to suggest that your friend was not a fine..."

"Go..."

He sighed and left, she grimly watching him leave...

"Don't say a word..." she passed a somewhat annoyed Dawn...Heading for her bedroom...Geesh...Dawn looked at their now quietly closed front door...

The Immortal having been such a great...Well, after she'd accepted the idea of yet another vamp lover...

Now, though, course after the admittedly sad news from California one could understand sis' feelings, Buf takes one little remark the wrong way and he's suddenly pond scum...

"He didn't mean anything, ya know..." she called through the closed bedroom door...

Just a hint that William had hardly been worthy...Hell, no more than what we all thought...

And sis had, to her knowledge, given up on Spike's ever trying to re-connect after Andy said he'd dropped by but refused to stay...

Anyway Angel was still kickin'...Barely...So there wasn't all bad news...

And if William had meant so much to her...Why hadn't she taken a plane to LA on hearing he was back?...And he'd taken his time...

But, against her will almost...A brief scene popped into her head...The time Spike had tried to help her with reviving Mom...And another, when he'd sat withher, after Buffy's death...Telling her with a grin that if he, the demon, was willing to gamble on trying to please Buf's soul in hopes of a future soul-to-soul connect, odds were there must be a Heaven, just as he was Unliving proof there was a Hell...A little lump rose...

Why hadn't he come?...Written?...Called?...

At least she might have been able to say that she'd wished she'd said something kind after he got the soul back for sis...Though after all, he had let her down as he had Buffy that day in their old place...

But was that William?...Or Spike, trying to be William and not quite able to keep his nature down...

A sudden scream from Buffy's room brought her out of her reverie...She raced to the door...Unlocked, thank goodness...She flung it open...

Buffy, standing in shock...Looking at the balcony window of her bedroom...Where two figures stood, standing together...Looking into the room, but unmoving...

Drusilla, staring quietly at Buffy...A look not triumphant or mocking...Merely...Quiet...

And a somewhat less composed Harmony...Who rather looked like she'd prefer to be far away...

Buffy?...Dawn looked at her...Phew, stake in hand...

"They can't get in..." Buffy noted, moving forward carefully...

"It's all right..." Dru nodded, a wan smile now on her face as she looked at Dawn... "Little one, don't be afraid..."

"You are...More dead than usual, Dru...Why are you here...?" Buffy glared...

"Tell her..." Dru pulled at Harmony...Who looked away...

Tell...Dru repeated...A gentle hand tightening...Clearly painfully...Round Harm's shoulders...

"I stopped your calls...Returned your letters..." Harmony gasped out...

I had his letters to you taken in Rome before they got to you...

Dawn stared at her...Then at Buffy's face, now drained of all color...

"What can I say?..." Harm shrugged... "I'm evil...And he treated me like..."

You...Buffy trembled, moving to attack crouch...Dru put a hand out...Buffy...

"You should have come to him, you know...He was afraid..." she sighed...

My poor little boy...she looked at Buffy...

"I just killed the Immortal...As he left...Hope you don't mind but he hurt my poor boy...Made him cry...So I had to..."

My poor silly boy...Who never wanted to be hero...Just wanted to be loved...

"I would have come...If I thought he...If..." Buffy began...Dawn trembling now...Tears starting even as she gave Harmony an icy look, worthy of the Slayer's sis...

"He knows..." Dru nodded...He knows...

"You came...To make her tell me this...?" Buffy stared at her...

He was my little, silly boy...He'd want you to know...Dru nodded...Eyeing her with an expression that was almost...

"And..." she paused...I...We...She indicated Harmony...Who was looking down now...Something odd working in her face...

Crying...Dawn realized...

"We felt...Like crying..." Dru sadly noted...Harmony weeping now...

"Do you feel like crying, Buffy?..." she eyed her, tears rolling down her face...


End file.
